Awesome Accidental Vegan Instant Pudding

This creation started after a botched smoothie a few months ago. The Indian markets in my neighborhood have Psyllium Husk, which had a packaging that had always intrigued me. I like old school graphics, and they sold me. I looked up what exactly it was, and it turns out, its pretty damned good for me too, so I picked up a box. 

Psyllium Husk is the husk of the seed of the Plantago herb. It it a good source of fiber, and has a lot of intestinal and colon cleansing benefits. Seemed like a good thing to put into my smoothies, so I made one of my favorites; peanut butter banana rice milk. I sprinkled a bit of the husks and chia seeds in it and Vitamixed it up adding rice milk as necessary until it was slightly less thick than I wanted it to be. Chia seeds tend to soak up moisture and thicken it after it sits.

Nope. I quickly learned that you add psyllium husks until its about a third of the consistency you want it to be. This is because the psyllium husk absorbs much more moisture than the chia seeds even do, so my smoothie thickened up tremendously. Long story short, my smoothie drink required a spoon and wasn't really awesome at all.

Even though the smoothie consistency was "passed pudding", and definitely more like toy slime all stuck together, I still knew I was onto something, and set out to make a vegan pudding pie. To my surprise, there was much success! Definitely not toy slime. The great thing about this recipe is you can switch out the chocolate powder for other flavorings.

You will notice my pattern of non-measurements in my cooking. I just mix and do. Sorry about that! I will try to gauge out about how much I used. For this recipe, you will also need a food processor of some kind (I love my Vitamix) along with:

PUDDING 1:

• Psyllium Husk
• Chia Seeds
• Cocoa Powder
• Milk of your choice
• Sweetener (I use dried dates over processed sugar. Use what ya like)
• Vanilla, almond, or mint extract (optional)

1. I used a can of coconut milk in my blender and reserved the cream on the top of the can as a pudding topping.
2.  Added about 1 tablespoons of chia seeds, and about 2 heaping tablespoons of the psyllium husk seems accurate.
3.  In goes a generous amount of cocoa powder.
4. I also added a little bit of water too to help the mix chug along better.
5. I blended it all up adding my dates one at a time to taste. You'd put your extracts in at this point too. 

I blended it good so it would be smooth. Chia and psyllium husk could be grainy and give ya a weird texture while eating it. The Vitamix actually warms up contents if you let it do it's magic, so maybe that helped the pudding texture not be too weird for me.

PUDDING 2:
This one uses less ingredients, has a bit more fat, and is by far, my favorite. If you want to reduce fat, you can mix the two pudding recipes together for something in between, using half as much coconut cream and substituting with another milk or water.

• Trader Joes Coconut CREAM. Not milk.
• Cocoa Powder
• A little milk or water.
• Dried Dates as a sweetener
• Vanilla, almond, or mint extract (optional) I always use a drop of vanilla essential oil

1. Empty the can of coconut cream into the blender, reserving a bit if you want a topping
2. Add cocoa powder and flavoring
3. Start blending and add dates to taste until its the right amount of sweet for you.
4. Put in your extracts.  

That's it! It was easy peasy. Pour it in whatever you're going to put it in and let it set in the fridge. I put mine in this gluten free crumb crust that was on sale and topped it with the leftover coconut cream. I liked it! On that note though, the crust was pretty sweet, so next time I will opt to use less sweetener in the pudding itself.

CAN ALSO SWITCH COCOA POWDER FOR:

• Maca powder 
• Vanilla extract
• Vanilla and cinnamon
• Vanilla and Maple
• Maple and cinnamon 
• Coconut cream and pineapple juice? 
• Kahlua, Baileys? Hey, why not?
• Get creative!

PSYLLIUM HUSK NOTE: If you put too much, you will have something that is stuck together in a blob like slime. If you accidentally put too much, you can still fix it. Return it to the blender with more milk and flavorings to thin it out again. I always try to save things before tossing.

SERVING NOTE: You can also cut it into squares and freeze it too for a frozen petit four type thing. You will need to let it sit out for a few minutes before eating it or you will break your teeth!

If you give this a try, let me know how your experiment went. <3